Clochard

by Patrick Gaboriau

*This description is a summary of [Daniel Terrolle's critique][1] of the 1993 edition of "Clochard".* "Clochard" is an analysis of the social systems of homeless people, presented in a sequence of 75 paragraphs that allow the reader to better understand the social worlds and trajectories of individuals classed as "SDF" (sans domicile fixe) --a term that has gained popularity in France since the 1980s. The book is based on fieldwork carried out between October 1990 and May 1993 by the author, in his interactions with five homeless individuals (four men and one woman) living in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris. The goals of the work are: 1) a first-hand observation and familiarization with the values and lifestyle of the homeless person, 2) a semantic and discursive analysis of the homeless person's ideological universe in order to arrive at some moral and emotive assumptions, and 3) an understanding of the homeless person in the context of their life and phenomenological universe (as op